"Me and Robin [Thicke] the whole time said, 'You know we're about to make history right now,' " Cyrus, 20, says in a video clip recorded last week and obtained by MTV.

At the same time, Cyrus says she didn't spent a ton of time dwelling on the preparations.

"What's amazing is, I think, now, we're three days later and people are still talking about it. They're overthinking it," she says. "You're thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. Like, I didn't even think about it, 'cause that's just me."

She also name-drops Madonna and Britney Spears as examples of pop stars who shocked VMA viewers with their routines.

"I don't pay attention to the negative because I've seen this play out so many times. How many times have we seen this play out in pop music?" she says. "Madonna's done it. Britney's done it. Every VMA performance ... that's what you're looking for; you're wanting to make history."

The clip was apparently recorded by the MTV News & Docs team that is producing a documentary on Cyrus to air this fall.